Sturdy and comfortable rucksack recommendations

[mumzy]

DS1 starts secondary school in Sept and needs a rucksack for books, sports gear, pack lunch. Tell me your best recommendations for rucksacks TIA

Uberly, both DD and DS have had Gola/Adidas bags for a year and they are still going strong. And they have been more waterproof than the previous rucksacks, a definite plus with this year's weather!

And your DS will soon change his mind....

Please don't get a character lunchbox.

The other thing is that (in my experience) the lunchbox contents are suddenly of no interest to anyone. Fizzy pop, bars of chocolate-anything goes.

Sounds like I got a real bargain with the Adidas bag then...fingers crossed!!

And no, I won't be getting him a character lunch bag. There are sometimes when Mum really does know best!! Like you said bigTillyMint, he will change his mind and agree with me when he's done a few weeks, even days at "big" school! :D

www.streetfusion.co.uk/search.htm?search[freeform]=Ogio%20backpack

I found a great selection on this website. The Ogio ones are nice, but there's loads of choice, lots of brands.

Oh, link doesn't work, sorry, but you can still get to the website.

Uberly have got ds one of these lunch boxes as has a water bottle in one of the compartments direct.asda.com/Sistema-Slimline-Quaddie-Lunch-Box---Aqua/002072107,default,pd.html

Eastpac bags are really good. If you look around and get them on sale they are not too expensive. I just get plain colours, navy or black then the DC's can add keychains or whatever iftheywere want.

Brought my son's Eastpak rucksack in yr8 & it's still going strong in yr11. He's been using an over the shoulder bag for general school bits for the past 2 years as rucksacks are not in vogue; but the Eastpak bag is used for everything else. Brought one that holds all AND the kitchen sink & paid a lot more than I'd normally pay. As it's outlasted all other bags I'd say it was worth the money.

DS1 uses a 25l Karrimor rucksack, I think it was about £12 from Sports Direct. Its big enough to fit all his day to day school stuff in but not too big and bulky and has good padded shoulder straps. He takes a separate sports holdall when he has PE. He had the Sistema quaddie lunch box but now has the Sistema cube one and prefers that for some reason known only to him!

our school has this one with its school logo on, its really big, carries lots and is approved by the British Back Care Association to prevent back pain and damage to young backs. Obviously we get charged a lot more due to the school logo being on it

sorry this link went wrong

DD2 starts in September and has been getting tips from DD1 on how not to be a new geeky Y7..... So, we have had a trip to Superdry for her to get one of their bags so will be seen as a cool girl from day one DD1 took her Eeyore bag but within 2 days of starting we had to go and buy a large handbag for her as the Eeyore one was not cool.

Regarding lunch boxes DD1 started off using those plastic ones from Tesco but after they got broken within days of use she now puts her sandwich in a bag and stuffs in it her bag (doesn't last long as always eaten by break).

I wouldn't buy anything expensive to start with (unless, like me you have an older child refusing to be with them if they are geeky!!!) as they will probably change their mind within a few days after seeing what everybody else has got